Doctor Who and the Gateway to the Stars
by Nix Nada
Summary: Completed! Dr Who-Stargate cross. A trip to a secret Gate on Mars unleashes an evil being bent on destroying the universe.
1. Chapter One

_This story was prompted by a challenge on _Heliopolis_ to make a _Stargate / Doctor Who_ crossover. It's set in an alternate universe; a sort of blending of the two shows. It's set somewhere around the beginning of Season 2 of SG-1 and Season 14 of Dr Who. I suppose I should warn you about spoilers, but if you haven't seen_ Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars_ let this be a lesson to you._

_Enough of this – on with the story:_

**Doctor Who and the Gateway to the Stars**

**By Nix Nada**

Somewhere in the distance, an alarm sounded a slow, sonorous chime. Something was very wrong. The Doctor sped into the console room and checked the readouts. Around him, the room shook and dipped as if shaken violently by some unseen hand.

"Seem to be caught in some sort of spatial vortex, like an artificial wormhole," he muttered to himself. Gripping the edge of the console with one hand to retain his balance, he reached out and turned on a small computer monitor. He raised his eyebrows in astonishment at the data on the screen. "Coming from… Earth? But they don't have that sort of technology in this era."

The Doctor sidestepped as best he could around the console to another panel of controls, pressing buttons, pulling levers and flicking switches as he went.

"It's using an enormous amount of power; it can't be a natural occurrence. This will require some investigation, I think."

The Doctor patted the console affectionately. "Sorry, old girl," he said. "We're just going to have to ride the wave, I'm afraid."

Reaching out, he slammed his hand down on a large red button. With a massive tearing sound, the room shook one last time and everything went dark.

o o o

Somewhere in the distance, a klaxon blared. Something was very wrong. Colonel Jack O'Neill sped into the Stargate control room to be met by General Hammond. Through the glass of the viewing window, he could see the Stargate itself, the shimmering blue of an open wormhole turning dark and twisted, like a stormy sea.

"What's happening?" O'Neill asked the Gate technician.

"I don't know, Sir," replied Harriman, glancing up from his computer screen. "SG-5 were on their way back when the Gate went…" he gestured through the viewing window, at a loss for an explanation, before deciding on, "…screwy."

General Hammond stepped forward. "Well, see what you can do to get them back. We didn't lose anyone on the mission, I'll be damned if we lose them on the way home!"

"Sir, yes Sir," replied Harriman, hurriedly turning back to his computer.

Just then, three points in the wormhole seemed to dent inwards, as if pulled from behind. With a sound not unlike a loud gulp, the three points shot forward suddenly, sending three soldiers flying through the Gate to land heavily on the floor.

"Get a medical team down there, now!" barked Hammond, as he and O'Neill hurried down to the Gate room themselves.

As they arrived, the men were already stirring. "Stay there," Hammond ordered. "A medical team is on its way."

O'Neill stared up at the Stargate with a frown. "Why is the Gate still open?" he asked, turning to look up at the viewing window of the control room. Harriman returned his look with a helpless shrug, which turned quickly to a wide-eyed look of terror. Harriman banged on the glass, pointing desperately at the Stargate.

O'Neill looked over his shoulder to see a large, rectangular dent in the rippling wormhole. As if heard from a long distance, a grinding, churning sound was slowly rising and falling.

"Get down!" he yelled, pulling General Hammond to the corner of the room. The three injured soldiers only barely managed to pull themselves to their feet and move out of the way before, with a massive tearing sound, the room shook and everything went dark.

o o o

When the lights came back up, the Stargate had closed and, sitting innocently in the centre of the room, there sat a large blue box. It had the phrase, "Police Box," written across the top, around the words, "Public Call".

General Hammond was the first to his feet, as a group of soldiers filed past him and set up positions, pointing their guns at the door of the box.

The door opened and a man stepped out. He was tall, wearing a burgundy velvet jacket and a ludicrously long scarf, with a wide-brimmed brown hat jammed over a mess of curls.

"Who are you?" demanded one of the guards.

The man gave a wide grin, ignoring the raised weapons, and lifted his hat in greeting. "How do you do?" he asked. "I'm the Doctor."

The soldier narrowed his eyes. "That's not a name," he growled.

The Doctor spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness and gave a wide-eyed stare. "But it's all I have," he replied.

As they spoke, O'Neill was joined by Daniel Jackson and Teal'c, who watched in confusion as the three returning members of SG5 were led away by medical staff.

"What's going on?" hissed Daniel.

O'Neill shrugged and absently rubbed his head where it had struck the wall in the dive to get clear. "I have no idea."

"Stand down," ordered General Hammond, stepping through the knot of guards. "Doctor, it's been a while."

The Doctor stared again, this time in disbelief. "Captain Hammond?" he exclaimed, breaking into another massive grin. "You haven't changed a bit! Well…" he trailed off, unconsciously tugging on one his curls.

General Hammond laughed and ran a hand across his bald scalp. "It's General, now. And I can't say the same for you, Doctor. Didn't you use to be a little… older?"

"Regeneration, old chap. Bit of a run-in with a giant spider. But what is this?" he broke off, staring in fascination at the large circle of the Stargate. He stepped past the guards as if they weren't there and turned back to General Hammond. "Is this what put out the artificial wormhole that caught my TARDIS?"

Hammond gestured to the guards that they were dismissed. "Actually, Doctor, it was your TARDIS that affected the working of our wormhole. Come on," he added. "We can discuss this in the briefing room. We have a lot to catch up on."

Hammond led the Doctor out of the Gate room, past the bewildered members of SG-1.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he watched them leave. "Who was that strange fellow?" he asked.

"The Doctor," replied O'Neill.

"Who?" said Daniel.

"Beats me," replied O'Neill. "Let's go find out."

As they left, O'Neill looked sideways at Teal'c. "'Fellow'?" he asked. "Since when did you say 'Fellow'?"

"I have been watching many re-runs of old Sherlock Holmes movies," Teal'c said.

"Oh," said O'Neill, a little surprised. "Well… those are some good movies."

"Indeed," replied Teal'c with a nod.

o o o

Samantha Carter stared down through the wide window of the briefing room at the TARDIS in the Gate room below. She pointed a finger at it with a puzzled frown.

"So, you really expect us to believe that you travel through time and space in _that_?" she asked.

The Doctor sat slouched in a chair, his hat resting on the table in front of him. General Hammond took a seat at the head of the table while the rest of SG-1 peered across the table at the odd new-comer.

In reply, the Doctor waved a hand at the Stargate. "Do you really travel to distant planets through that?" he said.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Touché," he said.

"Doctor," said Hammond, "I'd like you to meet SG-1. This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, leader of the team. You've just met Captain Samantha Carter. Daniel Jackson is our linguist and an expert on ancient civilisations. Finally, this is Teal'c, a rebel Jaffa. SG-1, I'd like you to meet the Doctor – a very old friend of mine. We met when I was posted to England as part of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. The Doctor was their scientific advisor."

"Naughty, naughty," said the Doctor with a mischievous grin. "UNIT is supposed to be top secret, remember? Can't have just anybody knowing about a military outfit dedicated to fighting off invasions from outer space…" He trailed off, looking around the table, realising that that was exactly where he was.

The Doctor coughed. "Jaffa, eh?" he said, changing the subject and studying Teal'c with a friendly fascination. "You were a servant of the Osirians?"

"Osirians?" interrupted Daniel. "I don't think I've heard that word before."

"That is an ancient name by which some have known the Goa'uld," explained Teal'c, then, to the Doctor, he said, "I have rejected the service of the false gods. I have dedicated my life to freeing my people from slavery and oppression."

"Good for you," replied the Doctor. "I'm all for the ending of slavery and so on. I'm very pleased to meet you – to meet you all, in fact." He lifted a hand to raise his hat, then noticed it sitting in front of him. He settled for lifting it a couple of inches from the tabletop instead.

A thought occurred to him. He stood and crossed to the window to get a closer look at the Stargate.

"I've seen something like this before. Something triggered a memory when you mentioned the goo… the goowa…"

"The Goa'uld," supplied Teal'c.

"Thank you," said the Doctor. "The Osirians, yes. It was… there were pyramids, mummies… Let's see… It was…"

"Giza?" asked Daniel.

"Mars!" exclaimed the Doctor.

"Mars?" asked Sam. "There's no Stargate on Mars. It would have been mentioned on the cartouche we found with all the Stargate addresses."

"Ah, well," said the Doctor, returning to his seat, "this one may have been omitted for a reason; you see, the pyramids of Mars were a prison for Sutekh."

Teal'c gasped. The normally placid Jaffa leapt to his feet, knocking over his chair.

"The destroyer!" he cried. "Sutekh was the most feared and despised of all the Goa'uld. He was the supreme system lord for many generations. Millions suffered an unspeakable existence under his tyranny."

"Before he was banished to the prison on Mars by the other Osirians," finished the Doctor. "When he broke out -"

"He broke out!" hissed Teal'c, gripping the edge of the table in fear.

"It's okay," said the Doctor. "I was able to trap him in a time loop. His body aged several thousand years in just a few seconds. He won't be troubling anyone ever again."

Teal'c closed his eyes, lowered his head, and took a few deep breaths.

"Forgive me," he said quietly. "A universe under the control of Sutekh would be unthinkable."

"I agree," said the Doctor.

"Do you have the Gate address for the Mars Gate?" asked O'Neill.

"Yes!" agreed Daniel. "Think of all we could learn – another Stargate and evidence of Egyptian culture on another planet in our solar system."

"I was thinking more along the lines of blowing the damn thing up," said Jack.

"What!" exclaimed Daniel.

"That Gate is a strategic nightmare," O'Neill explained. "It would make a handy little base of operations for anyone looking to attack Earth, wouldn't it? Being that it's just one door down and all."

General Hammond interrupted: "Whatever the reason, it looks like we need to check it out. Do you have the address, Doctor?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Sorry, General. I was a little caught up with booby traps and the like at the time."

"I might be able to get the computer to figure it out," supplied Sam, "if the Doctor can tell me exactly where on Mars the Gate is located."

"Happy to," grinned the Doctor.

"Then it's agreed," said Hammond. "You'll check out the Mars site as soon as Captain Carter can magic up the address. From what the Doctor says, I gather the site may be dangerous; SG-5 will back you up."

"Sir?" asked Jack.

"They weren't badly hurt by their bumpy return and they're keen to get back in the field. Besides," Hammond added with a mischievous smile, "they want to meet the man who taught them to fly."

The Doctor shoved his hat back on, looking sheepish.

Hammond stood up and clapped his hands together. "Okay, people," he announced. "Get ready to ship out."


	2. Chapter Two

Dr Janet Fraiser was peering through a microscope in the medical bay when she heard the door behind her opening slightly and someone knocking politely.

"Who's there?" she called.

A curly-haired head appeared, sporting a friendly grin.

"The Doctor," he replied.

Dr Fraiser sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, where the microscope eyepiece had been pressed. _That doesn't narrow it down_, she thought. _This is the infirmary; there are a lot of doctors around._

Sensing that her visitor wasn't going to volunteer any further information without prompting, she asked, "Doctor _who_?"

The man stepped into the room. "That's right - we haven't met yet, have we? I'm the Doctor – just 'the Doctor', please. I'm a friend of General Hammond. He's asked that I come down to get 'checked out', as he put it, before we go on our exciting adventure."

"'Exciting adventure'?" asked Dr Fraiser. It had been a long day, but she wasn't too tired to know that that didn't sound like General Hammond.

"Well, he said 'mission', but I much prefer 'exciting adventure', don't you? It sounds so much more, well, _exciting_." With that, the Doctor hopped onto one of the beds.

Dr Fraiser picked up a clipboard and approached her new patient. As she carried out the usual round of tests, she puzzled over how this man could be an acquaintance of General Hammond. He certainly didn't look military. In fact, he looked rather more off-beat than the General's usual choice of friend. She listened politely to his outlandish tales of time travel and the eternal struggle of good against evil. His stories were even more bizarre than the reports of the SG teams – time-travelling monks, little green blobs inside killing machines, dinosaurs attacking London - she didn't want to use the phrase 'nut job', but if the scarf fits… He seemed human enough, however, and healthy too – no nasty Goa'uld infestation.

"If you could just open your shirt," she said, putting a stethoscope into her ears.

This was odd; his heart was racing. Dr Fraiser looked up to see if her patient was in any distress, but he seemed fine. He smiled back at her.

She noticed another faint sound under the heartbeat and moved the stethoscope across to find it. Sure enough, there was another heartbeat – slower, more regular than the first. She shifted back to the first and found it still racing.

Behind her, someone let out a stifled chuckle. She turned to see General Hammond standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Fraiser," he laughed. "I just wanted to see the look on your face."

"So you knew he had -"

"Two hearts? Yes, I knew. It's just good to know that after all we've seen, all the planets we've visited and all the civilisations we've met – I can still surprise you."

Dr Fraiser gave a tired smile. "You got me, sir."

"Come on, Doctor," said the General. "They're about to open the Gate; I think you'll want to see this."

The Doctor stood up and turned to Doctor Fraiser. "I do apologise. He was like this all the time at UNIT, too - got old Lethbridge-Stewart in a terrible mood." The Doctor shook her hand warmly. "It was so nice to meet you."

With that, he left the room in a swirl of coat and scarf. Doctor Fraiser sat back down at her microscope. _Please_, she thought, _let this be the weirdest thing that happens to me today_.

o o o

"Chevron seven: locked!"

The Stargate locked into place, the warping of a newly-formed wormhole sending a wave of energy billowing outwards, which was then sucked back into a rippling, upright pool.

General Hammond turned to the Doctor with a proud smile. Behind him, the members of SG-1 and SG-5 stepped onto the ramp, ready to go through the Gate.

"Well, Doctor," he said, "what do you think?"

"Very impressive," replied the Doctor. "I mean, I understood the basic theory, but I've never actually seen one of the Stargates in action before."

"Care to take a trip?" asked the General.

"I'll… ah… take the TARDIS, if you don't mind," replied the Doctor.

General Hammond looked slightly hurt, but only for a moment. Then he laughed, as a memory struck him. "It's up to you – are you sure you can get that old box to Mars?"

Now it was the Doctor's turn to affect an injured air. "Old box? I'll have you know that the TARDIS is extremely capable of reaching its destination. It has a very accurate navigational computer and a state of the art..." He tailed off, realising that Hammond wasn't buying it.

"Alright," confessed the Doctor, "I'm going to piggy-back the wormhole. As long as I follow it all the way, I should reach Mars at about the same time as your people."

"Won't that have the same problem as when you arrived?"

"No, no – now that I know what your wormhole is and what it does – and most importantly, where it's going – I can travel alongside without disrupting anything."

"Well, good luck, Doctor," said Hammond. "In the unlikely event that your state of the art navigational computer can't get you back here, it's been a real pleasure seeing you again."

"And you, General," replied the Doctor, shaking Hammond's hand. "Keep up the good work here. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart would be very proud."

"Thank you, Doctor, that's high praise indeed."

With a lift of his hat, the Doctor disappeared into his TARDIS. At a nod from General Hammond, the SG teams made their way through the Gate. Shortly after, the TARDIS slowly dematerialised, accompanied by a pained grinding, shifting noise that rose and fell, swelled and collapsed, like the sound of a rusty old steam train on a very steep hill.

o o o

The Doctor looked up from his book to see the Stargate blossom and settle into an incoming wormhole. SG-5 were first through the Gate, with orders to secure the Mars Gate room. They fanned out as soon as they emerged, efficiently scanning the room for any threats.

The Doctor gave them a little wave. "Hello!" he called out. He sat in an old, slightly frayed deckchair next to the TARDIS, which had materialised slightly to the rear of the Stargate. The Gate room itself was larger than that on Earth, its walls made of a dark golden metal, covered with hieroglyphics. The lighting was minimal, casting pools of deep shadow in every corner. A long corridor led off into the gloom, directly ahead of the Stargate.

The three soldiers whirled around, guns levelled. When they saw it was the Doctor, they put up their weapons.

"How did you get here so fast?" demanded Captain Palmer, a stocky man with a square jaw and hair that was greying at the temples. Palmer, the leader of SG-5, looked every inch the military man.

The Doctor closed his book and stood up, patting the side of the TARDIS affectionately.

"Time travel, remember?" he replied with a smile. "I managed to sneak in a few minutes early."

Captain Palmer nodded coldly. "And you've been – what – _reading_ all this time?"

The Doctor looked at the book's cover. "War of the Worlds," he said. "I thought it was appropriate, given the circumstances."

By this time, SG-1 had stepped through the Gate. Teal'c moved slowly through the room, with the quiet vigilance of a seasoned warrior, while Captain Carter joined the two remaining members of SG-5 in scouting out the perimeter of the room. Daniel Jackson immediately began poring over the ancient writings on the walls. Colonel O'Neill quickly approached Captain Palmer for an assessment of the situation.

"Area is secure, sir," stated Palmer, without prompting. "No hostiles discovered. No thanks to this… gentleman. He arrived well before us, sir, but has since been just sitting there."

O'Neill winced. He was a man who liked to keep thing simple. A mission goes by the book, no-one gets hurt, everybody goes home. Simple. Gripes like these only served to upset that nice, simple plan.

"Captain Palmer," he began. "This gentleman is a civilian. He is here in an advisory capacity only. I hardly think we need to have him running reconnaissance."

With that, he turned away, addressing everyone in the room. "Okay – Teal'c, you'll go with SG-5. Scout ahead; make sure there aren't any nasty surprises waiting for us."

"Oh, all the traps and whatnot will have been deactivated from the last time I was here," interjected the Doctor. "It'll be quite safe now."

"Sweet," said O'Neill, dryly. "Captain Carter, Daniel – you're with me and the Doc here. Okay, let's see what's out there, shall we?"

As they made to leave, Captain Palmer caught the Doctor's sleeve. "My men may think that stunt you pulled with the Gate was all fun and games," he growled, low enough that only the Doctor could hear, "and you may have somehow gotten into General Hammond's good books, but I will not have anyone jeopardising the safety of my people. Do we understand each other?"

The Doctor could only gape at him. Palmer looked him up and down with disdain, and then marched out after his men.

o o o

The first room that Teal'c's team had designated as safe was a small rectangular chamber, just off the main corridor. It had the same golden walls as the Gate room, but this time inset with four large panels, two on the left wall, two on the right, each bearing a solid black hieroglyph. There was a heavy black object set in the centre of the floor.

O'Neill and his team entered the room. Daniel was first in, eager to examine everything.

"That symbol," he said, pointing excitedly to one of the panels. "That's the eye of Horus." He spotted the object in the middle of the room. "And this looks like some sort of sacrificial altar – see how these grooves run off from the top down into those channels in the floor?"

He turned to Jack, who looked back blankly. O'Neill shrugged; whatever information Daniel expected him to have wasn't surfacing.

"You know – to catch the blood of the sacrifices?" urged Daniel.

"Ah," said O'Neill. "Nice."

"Your friend has a very morbid imagination," said the Doctor to Sam, out of the corner of his mouth yet loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Those are power channels," he continued, moving into the room and describing the line of the grooves with his finger. "See how they climb up the walls again, in that diagonal direction?"

"Power channels?" asked Daniel, "But how ?"

The Doctor just pointed to the ceiling to where the lines converged on a single point. Daniel looked up. He frowned, uncomprehending. Then it hit him.

"A pyramid!" he exclaimed. "The lines form a pyramid!"

"Very good," beamed the Doctor. "You can get a lot of power out of a pyramid, you know – if you set the harmonics just right."

"I've never seen anything like this," breathed Daniel.

"Well, there's never been a need for so much power in one place before. The eye of Horus held an impenetrable force-field around Sutekh for centuries."

"The eye ?" asked Daniel.

The Doctor shrugged. "Just what Horus called the set-up he created to imprison his brother."

"Keeping an 'eye' on him, you mean?" said Sam with a smirk.

O'Neill looked pained. "Carter, make another joke like that and I'll have you court-martialled."

"Sorry, sir," replied Carter, still smiling.

"No, this is a control panel," said the Doctor to Daniel. "Look, I'll show you."

All three of them grouped around the Doctor. "You just place your hands on either end of the device, like this." As he did so, a red eye symbol appeared, glowing dimly in the centre of the object.

"Hmm…" said the Doctor. "There must be some residual power left in there."

Suddenly, the panels in front of them slid open without a sound. Sam and Jack immediately raised their weapons as they saw what stood within.

Behind each panel was what appeared to be a mummy, but these were clearly not human. Each was as bulky as a man in armour, with a wide barrel chest and thick arms. They were wrapped in a complete covering of bandages that looked untouched by the passage of time.

"It's alright!" cried the Doctor. "They're dead."

O'Neill and Carter moved carefully towards the two mummies, keeping them in their weapon's sights at all times.

Sure enough, the figures appeared completely dormant.

"They were part of the defence system of the prison," explained the Doctor. "Guards, if you will. With no prisoner to guard, they have no programming to follow. They're quite harmless now."

Daniel joined Sam and Jack, staring at the mummies in fascination. "So these mummies are actually some sort of robot?"

The Doctor made no reply.

"Doctor?" Daniel turned, to see one of the mummies from the other side of the room force the Doctor to his knees, its massive hands clamped around his neck.


	3. Chapter Three

Teal'c stepped quietly into the large hallway and stopped still, peering into the shadows, his long staff weapon loose and ready in his hand. The room was massive, with six huge pillars running down either side, supporting a high ceiling. Strangely, the hallway ended in a completely bare, featureless wall.

As Teal'c surveyed the room, Captain Palmer joined him by his side, the rest of SG-5 moving quickly around the edge of the room, crouched low, guns sweeping every area.

"Kinda spooky, huh?" said Palmer.

"Terrifying," agreed Teal'c, with a slow nod.

Palmer gave a dry laugh. "Yeah, you look scared out of your wits," he said, ironically.

"I may not look scared," said Teal'c, "but the fact remains that this was the prison designed to hold Sutekh, the destroyer – the most feared Goa'uld in all of history. He would have laid waste to the universe simply because it pleased him to do so. A man would have to be a fool not to be afraid in such a place."

"This place really gives you the willies, huh?" said Palmer, surprised.

"The willies?" enquired Teal'c, raising an eyebrow.

"You know, the heebie-jeebies?" Palmer gave up. "Never mind – so, this Sutekh was really that bad?"

"Captain Palmer, do you know how many Goa'uld it took to subdue Sutekh and bring him here to this prison?"

Palmer shook his head.

"Seven hundred," said Teal'c.

Palmer let out a low whistle. "Seven hundred Goa'uld? That's an army!"

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c. "Never before or since have the System Lords co-operated in such a fashion. Even then, their losses would have been substantial. Sutekh would not have allowed himself to be captured without a mighty struggle."

"But he's dead now, right?"

"So it would appear. The Doctor claims to have destroyed Sutekh when he attempted to escape from this planet to Earth."

Captain Palmer let out a derisive snort. "The Doctor? Yeah, right. He couldn't fight a head cold. The man's a clown."

"On the contrary, to have not only defeated, but actually _destroyed_ Sutekh, the Doctor must be a cunning and resourceful warrior."

"Yeah, well, I'll believe it when I see it," said Palmer.

The other two soldiers had by now completed their sweep of the room.

"Nothing, sir," said one.

"Good work, Lawson," acknowledged Palmer. "Let's move on to the next area."

"Uh, no, sir," chipped in the other soldier. "What Lieutenant Lawson means is… there's nothing up there."

"What are you talking about, Scherer?" growled Palmer.

"It's a dead end, sir," replied Scherer. "The end wall is completely blank – no way through."

"Well, that doesn't make any sense," said Palmer. "Look at this place. It must lead somewhere."

"Agreed," said Teal'c, striding off towards the far end of the room.

o o o

Carter slammed the broad arm of the robot repeatedly with the butt of her gun, but to no avail. Daniel proved equally ineffective at prising the robot's huge hands apart. Meanwhile, the Doctor was going limp under the pressure.

With an effort of will, he managed somehow to reach up and into his coat pocket, pulling out a long cylindrical metal device. He pressed a button somewhere on it and the air was pierced by an ultra-high whistling sound, just above the edge of hearing, but at that his strength failed him and the device dropped from his fingers to the floor.

O'Neill grabbed the device and, at a loss for anything else to do, thrust it into the face of the robot.

At once, the robot jerked back, disoriented, releasing the Doctor, who slumped to the floor.

Jack held the object to the robot's head. It staggered back, flailing its arms, unable to escape the scrambling effects of the device.

"C'mon," said O'Neill, "Fall, you son of a -"

The robot crashed backwards heavily, and lay still. O'Neill held the device above its head for a few moments more, just to be sure, and then straightened up.

He looked over at the Doctor, who was already rising unsteadily to his feet.

"Quite harmless, huh?" said O'Neill.

The Doctor rubbed his neck, and coughed weakly. "I don't understand it," he wheezed. "Perhaps that one's programming was faulty."

"It is possible," agreed Carter. "The other three robots don't seem to have activated."

"Whatever," said O'Neill, handing the device back to the Doctor. "I don't think we should hang about for them to wake up. Let's move out."

As they left the room, following the direction in which Teal'c and his team had headed, Carter walked alongside the Doctor.

"So, what is that thing?" she asked.

"What, the sonic screwdriver?" replied the Doctor. "Just a little something I picked up on my travels. A useful little thing; it's got me out of quite a few tight scrapes."

"Sonic?" asked Sam. "How does that work? Surely the frequency would have to be made to match that of whatever you were using it on?"

"Ah, well now, you see," said the Doctor, "that's the clever thing – what it does is -"

"Do you two mind keeping the New Scientist bit to a minimum?" hissed Jack, over his shoulder. "This place is dangerous, remember? Shush!"

Sam obeyed, not saying another word, but the Doctor strode ahead confidently.

"Oh, don't worry, Colonel," he said, in a loud, confident tone. "That robot back there was a fluke. Honestly, this prison is now utterly harmless."

He was interrupted by a loud cry from the far end of the corridor.

"I wish he'd stop saying that," muttered Daniel, as they all raced up the corridor in the direction of the noise.

They rushed into the long, pillared hallway to see that half of the floor had fallen away. Teal'c had his staff weapon jammed over the hole for support and was reaching down, holding onto something, while Captain Palmer and Lieutenant Lawson struggled to keep him from falling in as well.

When O'Neill and the others reached the lip of the fissure, they saw Lieutenant Scherer dangling from Teal'c's grasp. He kicked his feet, trying in vain to gain a foothold. Little lumps of dirt and rock dislodged and fell into the deep blackness below.

With the help of Daniel and Jack, Teal'c managed to drag Scherer back onto solid ground.

They sat for a moment, getting their breath back.

"What the hell happened here?" demanded O'Neill, getting to his feet.

"Forgive me, Colonel O'Neill," replied Teal'c, standing and retrieving his staff. "It is I who am to blame. I must have triggered one of the traps of this facility. I regret that I placed the life of Lieutenant Scherer in jeopardy."

"Hey!" interrupted Scherer, "That ain't how it went down. I saw the floor was caving in same as the others, but I was dumb, alright? Tried to jump forwards when I should'a jumped back. The big guy saved my life."

"Well," said Jack to Teal'c, a little taken aback by Scherer's outburst. "Okay then. Way to go, 'big guy.'" Teal'c could only nod in acknowledgement.

"That wall is blank," observed Daniel, pointing over the hole to the wall at the far end of the room.

"It is," agreed Teal'c. "That is what I was investigating when the floor collapsed."

"No, I mean, it's _blank_," repeated Daniel, but looking around saw only blank faces. "All of the other walls in this place have been covered, floor to ceiling, with hieroglyphics – warnings to 'keep out', most of them. This wall is completely featureless. That, coupled with this trap in our path, means that we're not meant to go in this direction."

"So we go look for another way in," said Jack with a shrug.

"No," said Daniel. "The Goa'uld who made this prison didn't want us to go this way – which means that this is exactly the way we need to go."

"Oy," said Jack, rolling his eyes.

Daniel took a few steps back and then ran and launched himself over the hole, landing on the little lip of rock still protruding from the far wall.

"Daniel!" cried out O'Neill.

"It's alright!" replied Daniel. "I'm alright – the ground is quite safe!"

"Yeah, well – that's what he keeps saying," said O'Neill, jerking a thumb at the Doctor. "Look where that's got us."

Without replying, the Doctor leapt over the fissure to join Daniel.

"What?" exclaimed O'Neill. "Careful!"

"I can help," called back the Doctor. "I've been here before, remember? I know a lot of the puzzles that were used to seal the doors."

"Puzzles?" asked Daniel. "You think there's a _puzzle_ blocking our way through? Isn't that a bit of strange thing to use to seal a prison door? It doesn't make any sense. I mean, anyone with the requisite intelligence could bust out Sutekh easily."

The Doctor nodded. "You have to remember, when this prison was built, your people – humankind in general – were primitive slaves to the Goa'uld. The other races – those capable of interstellar travel – would know better than to attempt to release one of the most dangerous beings in the universe."

"And only a race as vain as the Goa'uld would believe their puzzles were too intelligent for lesser races to circumnavigate," finished Daniel.

"Exactly," agreed the Doctor. "They're vain, they're ruthless and they're thoroughly evil – but no-one ever said that the Goa'uld were particularly clever."

Daniel brightened. "This should be a piece of cake, then. I've studied ancient civilisations all my life – and Egypt in particular. If there's some sort of Egyptian riddle locking this door, I should have the answer."

The Doctor grinned. "Excellent!" he beamed. "I like to see a bit of confidence in a man when he's got a dead end before him and a gaping chasm behind – good show!"

Daniel cleared his throat, nervously glancing over his shoulder at the deep, dark hole.

"Yes, well," he stuttered. "Let's get on with it, shall we?"

The Doctor placed his palms firmly against the wall. "Most of the puzzles I've seen have been quite hands-on, as it were," he explained. "This should get the thing started and we can work it out from there."

Nothing happened.

The Doctor shifted his hands slightly. "Any moment now, this wall is going to light up like your Fifth of July."

The wall remained still and dark.

"I don't think that's going to work," said Daniel, running his hands over the surface of the wall, looking for any bumps or irregularities that might suggest a hidden panel or switch. "And it's Fourth of July, not Fifth."

Daniel rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. "This prison was built by Horus, right? His eye symbol is everywhere around here – _except_ on this wall. What about if I drew the eye symbol onto the wall?"

"Can't hurt," said the Doctor.

Using two fingers, Daniel described a wide eye, with a large circular pupil. Then he drew three lines – two running down from the eye; one short and straight, the other curling away behind; and the third line curved above the eye, like an eyebrow.

Nothing happened.

"Okay," said Daniel, looking behind him, where the others still waited. "Now I feel stupid."

On the other side of the fissure, Captain Palmer turned to Colonel O'Neill with an impatient frown. "Are they gonna be much longer, sir?"

"Just a minute, Captain," said O'Neill. "You know what scientists are like. They'll get through it – they probably just have some more… you know, tests to carry out or something."

The Doctor threw out his arms and called out, "Open Sesame!"

O'Neill closed his eyes in despair. "Oh, for crying out loud."

Teal'c stepped forward. "I believe I might be of assistance." So saying, he bounded across the fissure, staff in hand.

"What the -" exclaimed Jack. "Alright, look – would everyone _please_ stop jumping over the bottomless pit!"

Daniel and the Doctor moved aside as Teal'c touched his staff weapon to the wall.

"Avidan!" he called out.

Noiselessly, what had seemed to be a solid wall disappeared to reveal a large, square throne-room.

"Avidan?" repeated Daniel, trying to remember the meaning of the word. "Avidan… avidan… 'the Gods are just', right?"

Teal'c nodded. "So they would have us believe," he replied.

"Okay," O'Neill said with a resigned sigh, seeing that the way ahead was now clear. "Would everyone now please jump over the bottomless pit?"

When they were all safely on the other side, SG-5 resumed their task of scouting out the darker recesses of the chamber while Sam, Daniel and the Doctor went to investigate the large, black throne thrust up through the middle of the floor.

Jack turned to Teal'c. "So, how did you know how to get the door opened?" he asked.

"I did not," answered Teal'c, "but this is a Goa'uld facility and it is a prison. Given these two facts, I simply used the most likely code phrase to open the way."

"Ah," said Jack. "Pretty smart thinking."

Teal'c gave one of his rare smiles. "It was elementary, my dear O'Neill," he said, walking away to join the Doctor and the others at the throne.

"Cute," O'Neill called after him.

o o o

At the far end of the throne room, Lieutenants Scherer and Lawson had found a deep recess, carved into the wall. Held within was a single broad pottery jar.

"Captain Palmer?" called Scherer. "I think we've found something here!"

Palmer hurried over, but pulled up short when he saw what Scherer was pointing at.

"It's a jar, Lieutenant Lawson," he said.

Lawson was taken by surprise. It was, after all, Scherer who had called Palmer over. "Yes, sir, we just thought -" he began.

"It's a _jar_," repeated Palmer. "I told you to look for potential threats. Unless I missed a meeting, pottery is not considered a threat."

Lawson visibly blushed. "We just – I mean, I -" he sighed and gave up. "Sorry, sir," he said.

"You have your orders," stated Palmer, stalking off. "Carry on."

Lawson's shoulders sagged. Scherer sniggered.

"Aw, man, you shoulda seen your face," Scherer laughed. "You were all, 'but… but… I… but… I…'"

"Shut up, Scherer," said Lawson. "Why does he always pick on me? You know this is why I haven't been promoted, don't you? The man hates me."

"C'mon, Simon," said Scherer. He could see that his friend was seriously upset, so he dropped the playful teasing. "The Captain doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, well, I'm just saying, that's all." Then, muttering to himself, he added rebelliously, "Screw him, I'm checking out the damned jar."

With that, Lawson dragged the jar from its alcove.

"Whoa, careful with that thing, Simon," cautioned Scherer, looking around nervously to make sure Captain Palmer wasn't around.

"It's just a jar, Emil" replied Lawson. "And unless I missed a meeting…" he added, darkly.

By this time, Lawson had the lid off the jar. He held it up and tilted it so he could look inside. The gloom of the chamber was such that he could only make out a dull glint at the bottom.

"I think there's something in here," he said, reaching a hand inside.

As his fingers closed around what felt like a jumble of cold metal bracelets, Lawson let out a little grunt of pain.

"What's up?" asked Scherer.

Without replying, Lawson pulled out a Goa'uld hand device, a light set of interconnected golden rings, meant to be worn over the hand like a glove.

"Oh, cool," said Scherer, "It's one of those hand things. We should go tell the Captain."

Lawson ignored him and began pulling the hand device on.

Scherer let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, buddy – very nice, but I don't think it's really you. Come on."

"_Silence_," commanded Lawson. His voice sounded strange; deeper and twisted.

Before Scherer could reply, Lawson lifted the device so that the circular lens in his palm pointed directly at Scherer's face.

"I am Sutekh," Lawson announced, sending a ribbon of dark golden light flowing from the disc in his palm into Scherer's forehead, ignoring his tiny gasp of pain. "I am your God. And you… will obey me."


	4. Chapter Four

The throne room lit up, from some unseen source high in the ceiling, as if a skylight had been opened and sunlight had been allowed to fill the room.

"What the hell?" asked O'Neill, squinting in the light.

From deep in the complex came sounds of grinding stone as long-dormant machinery was pressed into service once more.

"This place is active!" exclaimed Captain Carter.

"D'ya think?" replied O'Neill. "I don't like the sound of this. Palmer – get your men and get back here. Everyone else, get ready to go. As soon as they return, we fall back, head to the Gate."

Overhead, a recorded message started, an ominous rumble of syllables, alien to Jack, but spoken in the unmistakable, distorted tones of the Goa'uld.

"Daniel?" cried O'Neill, over the noise.

"It's ancient Egyptian," Daniel yelled back. "Hold on, I'll try to decipher. I think it says -"

"Allow me," interrupted the Doctor. "It's been ages since I've had a chance to practice my ancient Egyptian. It says -"

He stopped, as the recording switched languages.

"Security systems set to maximum. Escape attempt in progress. Failure to contain escape will result in this facility being rendered _tal lak_; total annihilation of prison facility and environs will occur."

"It says that," said Daniel and the Doctor together.

By this time, Palmer had returned, alone. "No sign of my men," he said. "I've checked the whole room."

"Okay," said O'Neill. "We don't know how much time we have left. We need to get back to the Stargate."

"O'Neill," protested Palmer, "what about my men? We can't just leave them here."

"_Captain_ Palmer," replied O'Neill, firmly. "I don't like it any more than you do, but in case you didn't catch that message, this place is set to self-destruct – possibly very shortly. We'll keep an eye out for your men, but we need to move out – _now_."

Palmer looked like he was about to protest further, but O'Neill turned away and began getting the others ready to leave.

They jumped back over the pit trap and ran through the pillared hallway. Emerging in the long corridor winding back to the Stargate, they found themselves confronted by three robotic mummies, their arms outstretched menacingly, lumbering towards them. Behind the robots stood Lawson, a malevolent grin twisting his features, and Scherer, who merely stared forward, expressionless, his eyes glazed and unseeing.

Palmer shot forward, heedless of the danger posed by the robots, thinking only of rescuing his men.

"Lawson," he yelled. "Get away from there!"

Lawson raised his hand towards Captain Palmer, palm forward. His eyes flashed white.

"Look out!" yelled O'Neill, but it was too late. A pulse of light shot forth from the hand device, knocking Palmer from his feet and sending him hurtling onto his back several feet away.

With a mocking laugh, Lawson turned and ran away along the corridor, Scherer at his side.

By now, the robots were dangerously close.

"Open fire!" yelled O'Neill, shouldering his own weapon and sending a burst of fire into the chest of the nearest mummy. The robot staggered back, but was not stopped.

Teal'c stepped forward and, with one mighty swipe, managed to topple the bulky robot. Once down, it found it impossible to regain its feet, damaged as it was.

"Take them down!" cried Jack, emptying the remainder of his ammunition into the chest of one of the two remaining robots. As he dropped the clip and reached for another to reload, the felled robot clamped a massive hand around his ankle and squeezed. Jack let out a strangled cry and almost fell to his knees. Trying his best to ignore the pain in his ankle, he slapped the fresh clip home and fired a burst into the mummy's head. It released him and lay still.

He looked up to see Teal'c level his staff weapon and fire at one of the robots. The blast left a charred and smoking mark on the robot's chest, but only served to slow it down a little.

Jack and the others were falling back now under the implacable advance of the mummies, and they were quickly running out of space to manoeuvre.

Teal'c placed his staff weapon calmly on the ground and reached to his back, removing a zat'ni'katel gun from its holster. The gun, which resembled a stylised serpent, unfolded into a firing position and loosed a volley of sparking blue bolts that enveloped the two robots. The mummies jerked violently under the electrical assault, before falling slowly backwards to the ground, little wisps of smoke emanating from between their bandages.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" exclaimed Jack, grinning with relief.

Captain Palmer was pulling himself to his feet, his body aching from the hand device blast and its collision with the floor.

"Lawson," he managed to gasp. "He was…"

"A Goa'uld," nodded Jack. "We saw. Can you walk?" Palmer nodded. "Good," said Jack, "me too."

"Shouldn't these, uh… mummies have been attacking Lawson, not us?" wondered Daniel. "After all, he's the escaping Goa'uld."

"Maybe he reprogrammed them?" suggested Sam.

"Very possible," agreed the Doctor, emerging from the pillared hallway to join them in the corridor, brushing dust from his overcoat. "The robot mummies were original Sutekh's personal guard. He was – or should I say _is_ – an incredibly paranoid and jealous individual. He would use Jaffa as slaves, much as any other Goa'uld, but the only creatures he would trust near him were his mindless machines."

"Then why are they here?" asked Daniel.

"Ah, well," replied the Doctor, "I imagine that that was considered a little poetic justice by the Goa'uld System Lords who imprisoned Sutekh; reprogramming his own robots to stand guard over him here."

"I see you kept yourself nice and safe 'round there," observed Palmer, bitterly.

The Doctor looked hurt. "I'm unarmed, Captain," he explained. "I would only have got in the way. Besides, I'm allergic to bullets."

"Can we continue this discussion somewhere that _isn't_ going to explode?" asked Jack. As he spoke, they heard the noise of the Stargate opening. "Come on!" he yelled.

They raced up the corridor towards the Gate room. Daniel forced himself to run faster, pulling ahead of the others. He reached into his pocket.

When the others caught up with him, he was standing by the Dial Home Device, but the Stargate had closed, the symbols on the DHD now blank.

"Damn!" cursed Jack. "Now we have no idea where they've gone."

"Oh, I got it," replied Daniel, turning around to show them the digital camera he'd pulled from his pocket.

Jack broke into a huge grin. "Way to go, Daniel!" he said.

"The geek shall inherit the Earth," muttered Daniel, peering at the small screen on the rear of the camera. "What I want to know is why a prison facility on lockdown allowed an outgoing wormhole to be established."

"I think I see the answer to that one," replied Sam, crouching down behind the DHD. She held up a large crystal that had been removed from inside the device.

"Looks like someone took a crowbar to the Gate's padlock," observed O'Neill. "Okay, dial it up; let's see where they got to."

Daniel punched in the symbols and everyone moved back as the wormhole was established.

"I'll follow in the TARDIS," said the Doctor, as one by one the others stepped through the Stargate. "Don't want to leave the old girl behind here."

"Oh, that's right," yelled Palmer, stepping towards the Doctor. "Run away when things get tough. O'Neill, if we let him get in that box of his we'll never see him again."

O'Neill put his arm out to stop Palmer. "That's enough, Captain!" he shouted. "Get through that damn Gate!"

He turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, we'll see you on the other side."

The Doctor nodded and disappeared inside the TARDIS.

Jack was the last through the Gate, which promptly shut down, its shimmering wormhole evaporating in an instant. Then, the TARDIS slowly faded out, leaving the Martian Gate room empty. As if finally satisfied, the lights in the room dimmed once more, the recorded messages ceased and all was silent.


	5. Chapter Five

The coarse red dirt crunched loudly underfoot as the travellers emerged from the Stargate. Overhead, two tiny moons glowed softly in a dusky sky and a wide band of dense, bright stars glittered in a shimmering span. To either side of the Stargate, the ground rose steeply, flanking the narrow valley with two high cliffs.

There was no sign of the two fleeing soldiers but, as before, the Doctor's TARDIS had arrived first. The door was slightly ajar, but the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

"Fan out," ordered O'Neill. "Keep your eyes open and be ready for an ambush."

The SG-1 team and Palmer began edging through the valley, alert for danger. As they came to a point where the valley twisted sharply to the right, they heard movement ahead, just around the corner.

O'Neill raised a hand to signal the team to stop, and then motioned for Teal'c and Palmer to circle around, to provide cover while he looked around the bend.

There, crouched in the dirt, they saw the Doctor, holding up his sonic screwdriver and talking softly. In front of him, sitting limp with his back against the cliff wall, was Scherer, his eyes still vapid and unseeing.

Palmer let out a cry of rage and flew at the Doctor, sending him sprawling with a blow to the back.

"Get away from him, you son of a -" he yelled, furiously.

Jack and Teal'c jumped forwards and grabbed Palmer's arms, holding him back.

"Let me go! He was doing something to Scherer!"

"I was trying to break his mental conditioning!" the Doctor shouted back, suddenly angry. He rose to his feet. "And if you'd have let me finish, instead of attacking me, I might have been able to return your soldier to his right mind!"

"Captain?" Scherer looked up, uncertainly. Glancing up, he took in the sight of the alien night sky. "Where… where the hell am I, Cap?" He scooped up a handful of the dusty red ground. "Is this Mars?"

Palmer was released and he knelt down in front of Scherer. "What did he do to you?" he demanded, throwing a black look at the Doctor.

Scherer's eyes went wide. "Sutekh!" he gasped, seizing Palmer's jacket in terror. His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "He was _inside my mind_." He hissed.

"Easy, son," said Palmer, gently removing Scherer's hands from his jacket. "Do you know where he his now?"

Scherer frowned, trying to recall through the mental fog. "He kept talking about a temple; _his_ temple. And about the people here, how they would work for him to make things like they was before."

"I'll get him for you," promised Palmer, his voice torn with pain and fury. "I'll make him pay for what he did to you. I swear – I'm gonna put a bullet right in his stinkin' brain."

Jack cleared his throat. "Uh… I don't think so…" he began.

Palmer flashed a look of raw hatred at O'Neill. "What the hell are you talking about!" he cried. "You saw what he did!"

"This isn't about revenge!" O'Neill shouted back. "That's Lawson out there! Right now the guy's a puppet for that scum-sucking snake, Sutekh, and I will be _damned_ if I let you drop him when there's even the remotest chance we can bring him back."

O'Neill stopped, took a deep breath and tried to calm down a little. "Now, you are going to stay here and take care of Scherer, while we check out this temple. That is an order, Captain Palmer. Am I making myself understood?"

Palmer turned his face away in bitter disgust, but, reluctantly, he nodded his agreement.

"Okay," said O'Neill. "Let's move out."

Without another word, O'Neill stalked off up the valley, followed by the others, leaving Captain Palmer whispering vengeful promises to Scherer.

o o o

O'Neill remained silent as he trudged onwards. By his side walked Teal'c, maintaining a respectful silence. Behind him, the Doctor was pointing out items of interest in the night sky to Sam and Daniel.

"Do you know," said the Doctor, "I think I've been here before. Just a fleeting visit, probably. I never was one for hanging around."

By now, they had left the valley and were walking along a rough path towards what looked like a small village. Above them hung the twinkling dome of space, filled with alien constellations. The Doctor pointed to the wide glittering span, which traversed the sky. "Look; over there – that's the Maktor Cloud, one of the most beautiful astronomical rarities in the universe."

Sam squinted into the heavens. "It looks like part of a galactic spiral arm – like the Milky Way," she observed.

The Doctor grinned, pleased to see someone taking an interest. "It does, doesn't it?" he agreed. "It's actually a lot closer to us than that, a broad band of dense matter, spread out across this solar system. It might be the remains of a destroyed planet. I keep forgetting to go back and find out."

"And I keep forgetting that you can actually travel in time," put in Daniel. "That must be amazing… All the places you can visit, the events you can witness."

"Not to mention all the trouble I can get into," added the Doctor, with a smile.

"The temptation to go back and alter history must be huge," said Sam, thoughtfully. "Come to that, the danger of altering the present – or at least what _we_ consider the present – must be even bigger."

"Ah, well, that's the funny thing about time travel," replied the Doctor. "History is a lot harder to change than you might think. You know the observation made by Earth scientists that the act of observing something changes the thing that's being observed?"

"Uh-huh," said Sam.

"And that light energy, the photons that enable us to observe the universe, exists essentially in both particle and wave form?"

"Yes…" repeated Sam, less sure of where this was going.

"And the fact that toast will always land butter side down on a new carpet…"

Sam laughed, despite herself. "You don't know, do you?"

The Doctor grinned. "Not a clue," he said.

"Sun's coming up," Daniel observed, pointing to the dusky glow, spreading slowly across the horizon.

The Doctor stopped. "Ah, now," he said, spreading his arms as if welcoming the sight. "This is something you have got to see. Sunrise against the Maktor Cloud is just sublime. Why, I remember one morning – this was a while ago now, you understand -"

"We go on," said O'Neill, firmly, never breaking his stride. Behind him, Daniel glanced back apologetically at the Doctor, but kept walking with the others.

"Quite right, quite right," said the Doctor, hurriedly, sensing O'Neill's mood. "There'll be other sunrises, other one-of-a-kind galactic phenomena…"

By this time, they had just about reached the outskirts of the small village filled with small, domed buildings. Daniel was fascinated. "This is like nothing we've seen before," he exclaimed, indicating a flat plain of dusty earth. "I mean, the ground looks lifeless, but there seems to be some evidence of farming. I don't think this was a human culture at all."

"Ah, yes," agreed the Doctor. "That'll be Gaaka root – it's highly calcified due to the mineral content of the – well, you could hardly call this soil, could you? The dust, I suppose you'd say. It still qualifies as a vegetable, though – if only barely. Certain species seem to thrive on the stuff. Oh dear."

"What?" said Daniel. The Doctor pointed to the middle of the field where a broken skeleton lay twisted on the ground. "Oh dear," agreed Daniel.

O'Neill at last stopped. This could, after all, be valuable information on the state of affairs on this planet. In his experience, having that information often meant the difference between getting everyone home safely and… not. Still, it was an interruption to his mission – getting Lawson back alive.

He refused to believe that there wasn't some way to get those little snakes out of people's heads safely. O'Neill was pretty sure they'd destroyed the Goa'uld-killing technology they'd found on Thor's planet in their efforts to bring Teal'c back unharmed, but perhaps the aliens behind that technology had some other method that could save Lawson. As long as he was alive, there was still hope.

Of course, to do that, he'd need to keep Captain Palmer at a good, safe distance. The Captain was becoming unhinged, a mixture of the guilt he felt at failing his squad, and the feeling of impotence that resulted from an inability to understand or control events in an alien environment. O'Neill had seen it before. Off-world, the rules were not your own, the actions of others often incomprehensible – in a word, _alien_. Even on the foreign battlefields of Earth, smoke, death and the roar of gunfire can quickly cloud even the most rational mind.

On the other hand, they now needed to find a non-violent method of containing an ancient Goa'uld who terrifies even Teal'c. _Yeah_, thought Jack ruefully, _caught between the devil and the big, bad Goa'uld_.

He was shaken from his gloomy thoughts by Teal'c's appraisal of the grim scene before them.

"I believe this creature was struck by a blast from an energy weapon," Teal'c observed.

"There're more blast marks over here," called Sam, indicating one of the low, domed-roofed farm buildings. "It looks like a war was fought here."

"Not a war," disagreed Teal'c, scanning his surroundings with mounting distaste. "These creatures lacked sufficiently sophisticated weaponry. This was a slaughter."

"This planet is so dry, it's impossible to tell when this happened from the state of the bodies," said Daniel. "The lack of moisture creates an almost mummifying effect. It could have happened a hundred years ago, perhaps much more."

"Oh dear," said the Doctor again.

"What _now_?" asked Jack, a little exasperated.

"I've just figured out where we are," replied the Doctor.

Jack looked at him, waiting for a response. "And…?" he prompted.

"This is the planet where Sutekh got his last host," said the Doctor, looking troubled. "These creatures were the source of his vast powers."

"The ability to destroy all of creation, those powers?" asked Jack.

The Doctor nodded.

"Okay, that's a bad thing," agreed Jack. "All the more reason to press on to this temple and get this mess sorted out. Let's go."

They moved on, winding their way through the dusty little farming village.

A little way out from the village, they came to a slight rise in the ground. Climbing to the top, they were greeted by an extraordinary sight.

Jack gave a low whistle. "Okay, _that_ I was not expecting."

The ground below the small rise dipped down into a wide crater, perhaps a mile in diameter. Through its centre, a great furrow had been ploughed many centuries ago. Along the sides of this long, artificial channel, the creatures had erected flagpoles, though their banners had long since rotted away. At the far end, its surfaces still gleaming slightly in the rising sun, a Goa'uld mothership jutted from the earth.

"It must have crash-landed here ages ago," observed Carter.

"And it appears that this is the temple we're looking for," added Daniel. "I think the path leading up to it was actually made by the ship when it crashed."

"Let's check it out," said O'Neill, already making his way down into the shallow crater.

As they approached the downed craft, they passed several more skeletal bodies, lining the path.

"It appears that they were attempting to find sanctuary in the temple," said Teal'c.

"It must have been terrible," said Sam.

"Look on the bright side," started O'Neill. This remark was met with shocked looks from Sam and Daniel and even Teal'c raised an eyebrow in surprise. Jack shrugged, uncomfortably. "Well, at least there are no superpowered hosts for Sutekh to take," he finished.

Teal'c nodded in agreement. "You are correct, O'Neill. Through the slaughter of perhaps thousands of sentient beings, we are indeed marginally safer here than we would otherwise have been."

"Alright," said Jack. "There's no need to put it like that."

The Goa'uld ship had been altered substantially for its use as a temple. The sides were covered in large, pictographic writings and wide steps had been carved from the earth, leading up to an open bay that served as an entrance.

O'Neill checked the magazine in his weapon, made sure the safety was off and realised he was stalling. He sighed, staring resignedly at the dark opening ahead of them.

"Well, let's see what's in there," he said.


	6. Chapter Six

Like the outside, the interior of the Goa'uld ship had been completely remodelled. Brackets that once held ceremonial torches jutted from walls that were decorated from floor to ceiling with stylised imagery. New flooring, seemingly formed from the same dusty material that had created the large stairway outside, covered the walkways and helped to compensate for the slight angle at which the ship had landed.

Surprisingly, the lights onboard the ship still functioned, blinking into life as SG-1 and the Doctor entered.

"Ah, that's what I like to see," beamed the Doctor. "A cheery welcome."

At O'Neill's command, Carter and Teal'c moved into the small entrance hall, weapons ready. Meanwhile, Jack moved to cover Daniel and the Doctor, who were busy examining the markings on the walls.

"I think these are meant to tell a story," said Daniel. "It's a form of writing not dissimilar to ancient Egyptian. Sutekh must have taught his followers how to write it."

"What a philanthropist," replied Jack, dryly.

"Well, it was only so that they could better worship their god," admitted Daniel.

"Ah," said Jack, unsurprised. "So, is there anything on there that could help us out here?"

"Well," said Daniel, "this section here deals with the appearance in the sky of a 'streak of fire' during an important religious festival – probably the arrival of this ship."

"And this portion deals with the miraculous appearance of a holy temple and a god who rose up from the common people, but was possessed of terrible powers," added the Doctor.

O'Neill looked at them both for a moment. "So… 'no' then?"

"Sir," interrupted Carter. "I don't think Sutekh could be here. After all, if he were, wouldn't the lights have already been on?"

"Oh, that's what he'd like us to think," said Jack, sourly, "right up to the point where he jumps out and zaps us. No, we proceed as before – with caution."

They moved on, up a long corridor. As they went along, the drawings on the wall became simpler and a little hurried.

"This tells of their god leaving them through the stone circle," explained Daniel.

"Explains why the drawings get so crappy," said Jack. "The boss wasn't around."

"There followed a long period of unrest as the people came to terms with life without the controlling influence of a Goa'uld master," Daniel continued.

At this, Teal'c turned, looking puzzled. "Was it not a joyous occasion?" he asked. "These creatures were free from their bonds of servitude to a false god."

"Yes…" agreed Daniel, hesitantly, "but they appear to have been a very simple people. For generations, they had known no other existence but servitude. To be suddenly cut adrift after so long… well, it was a difficult time." To underline his point, Daniel indicated a crude drawing of a number of the creatures apparently fighting with one another.

The corridor opened out into what was once the bridge of the ship, since converted into a throne room. Beside the high-backed throne, two of the bulky robot mummies lay stiffly on the floor, one with its chest blown away, the other missing its head.

The room was littered with desiccated bodies, the walls peppered with the scorch-marks of a dozen staff weapon blasts.

Beneath the blast marks, the drawings had been frenzied and haphazard, but their meaning was clear: they detailed the coming invasion and the destruction of their people.

"I don't understand," said Daniel. "It looks from these pictures in here that they were destroyed by a large number of Goa'uld. If these creatures could make them so powerful, why would the Goa'uld seek to wipe them out?"

"The thing you have to remember about Sutekh," said the Doctor, "is that he is completely, irredeemably, barking mad. Even for a Goa'uld, he's a station short of the Piccadilly line. These poor creatures, they gave him the power to destroy everything in the universe. The Goa'uld couldn't risk anyone else gaining that power. After all, it's hard to rule the galaxy if there's nothing left to rule."

"Sir," called Sam from the other side of the room, where a door blocked their path. "This is a dead end."

Teal'c examined the door and found that the key panel that activated the door had been ruined by weapons fire. "Captain Carter is correct. This door has not been opened since the attack on this planet. We can go no further."

"What do we do now, sir?" asked Carter.

"There doesn't seem much else we can do," replied Jack. "We head home, report back to General Hammond, get Scherer to the Infirmary."

"What of Sutekh?" enquired Teal'c.

O'Neill shrugged. It may have been just past sunrise on the planet, but it had already been a long day and his patience was wearing thin. "Shoot to wound. Use your zat if you can, Teal'c. Hopefully we can still save Lieutenant Lawson."

With that, they began the long journey back to the Stargate. The sun had by now risen some distance from the horizon. A little way across the sky from the sun, the Maktor cloud glistened and sparkled, catching the sunlight, clearly visible in the morning sky.

To Jack's surprise, Palmer and Scherer were not where they had left them. Instantly alert, he readied his weapon once more and gestured to his team to be on their guard as they scouted ahead.

Peering around the corner, Jack saw the Stargate and the Doctor's blue box, but no sign of anyone around.

They crept forward, quickly, checking behind the TARDIS and the Stargate, finding nothing.

Jack relaxed a little, relieved that they seemed to be in no immediate danger. He paused, trying to think through what must have had happened.

"It looks like Sutekh has captured Palmer and Scherer," he said. "Probably took them through the Gate while we were checking out the ship."

"…and then destroyed the DHD," finished Carter, examining the back of the Dial Home Device.

It took a moment for that information to sink in. "He _what_!" exploded Jack.

"Did a pretty thorough job of it, too," she said, holding up the ruined control crystal.

"This day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" said Jack.

"I'd be happy to offer you all a lift," put in the Doctor.

Jack looked at the small blue box, then back to the Doctor. "Doctor," he said, "there are _five_ of us. One of those five… is Teal'c." Teal'c bowed slightly in acknowledgement. "I don't think we're all gonna fit."

The Doctor gave his biggest grin yet. "It's a little cosy, I'll admit, but I think we'll get by," he said, disappearing through the open door of the TARDIS.

Jack shrugged and turned to Teal'c. "After you, big guy."

Teal'c sidestepped through the tall, narrow doorway. When he didn't emerge again after a moment, Daniel followed him through with a shrug.

Daniel did not reappear either, so, with a bemused smile to Jack, Carter entered, leaving only O'Neill outside.

"Ah, what the heck," said Jack to himself, then called out after them, "I hope you guys have showered!" With that, he ducked inside.

A moment later, he backed out again. He had a quick look around the outside of the TARDIS in disbelief, before stepping back inside.

He joined the others in a spacious white room – far bigger than the exterior could possibly hold – which had a large, hexagonal computer console in the centre and walls that were decorated with inset roundels. To one side, looking rather incongruous amidst the advanced technology, stood an antique hat stand.

"Okay, this is weird," said Jack.

"It's very impressive, Doctor," said Sam. "How's it done? Teleporter in the doorway, beaming us up to the main ship?"

"Oh, nothing so complicated as that," replied the Doctor. "The TARDIS is merely dimensionally transcendental. The dimensions of the inside are larger than those of the outside."

"Is that all?" said Sam, ironically.

The Doctor smiled. "I knew you'd understand." He moved to the console and pushed a lever, causing the outer doors to close behind him. "Anyway, let's get you all home, shall we?"

"You will not."

The distorted voice from an inner doorway caused them all to wheel around in surprise. There stood Sutekh, one arm tight around Captain Palmer's neck, the other pressing the hand device to Palmer's temple. Beside him was Scherer. Scherer's eyes looked unfocussed once more, but the gun in his hands was very definitely pointed straight at them.

"You will take me where I want to go, or this human will die a very painful death," snarled Sutekh, twisting his hold on Palmer.

"He's got Scherer under his control again," warned Sam.

"Not at all," said Sutekh. "My slave never left my service. But he did put on a good performance for you out there. Enough to allow me time to disable the Stargate and gain access to this vessel."

Palmer spat blood from between broken lips and locked eyes with O'Neill. "Shoot it, Jack," he wheezed. Sutekh tightened his grip around Palmer's neck, making him cry out in agony. "Shoot it!" Palmer yelled again, defiantly.

"Wait," cried the Doctor, holding up his hands in a plea for calm. "No-one needs to get hurt."

"Then take me where I want to go," repeated Sutekh, moving further into the room.

"And where would that be, exactly?" asked Jack through gritted teeth, never lowering his weapon.

"Not where – _when_," replied Sutekh, his eyes flashing angrily. "This ship is capable of travelling in time. You will take me to when the peoples of this planet still lived."

"Oh, no," said the Doctor, appalled. "Not that. I can take you elsewhere, you could have any planet in the universe – just don't ask me to take you back there."

Sutekh moved his hand from Palmer's temple slightly. A ribbon of golden light shot from the hand device and burned into Palmer's skull. Palmer cried out in pain.

"Alright!" yelled the Doctor. "Stop! I'm setting the controls." As Sutekh watched closely, the Doctor set the TARDIS to travel to the desired time. Soon, the short column in the centre of the console began to rise and fall slowly, indicating that the ship was in motion.

"Doctor, you can't do this," warned O'Neill, taking aim on Sutekh. "This has to end, here."

"No, Colonel," replied the Doctor. "What I can't do is watch someone being tortured to death."

The rotor in the centre of the console slowed to a halt. "We're here," said the Doctor, quietly. He pulled the lever that opened the doors.

With his free hand, Sutekh shoved the Doctor away from the console and quickly manipulated the same controls that the Doctor had used. Then, covered by Scherer, Sutekh dropped Palmer's broken form to the floor of the console room and slipped out of the door.

Sam rushed to Captain Palmer's side. "He's alive, sir, but we need to get him some medical attention," she announced.

"I have a first aid kit around here somewhere," muttered the Doctor.

"Dammit, Doctor," cried O'Neill, "I could've stopped him!"

"No, O'Neill," replied the Doctor, fishing out a medical kit from a compartment set into the base of the console and passing it to Sam. "You could have shot him. There's a world of difference."

Palmer managed to raise his head and said, "Get after him, Jack."

As O'Neill turned to pursue Sutekh, the twin doors of the exit closed before him. The room trembled.

"What are you doing now?" O'Neill shouted at the Doctor in frustration. The Doctor had leapt to his feet and was desperately working the controls, as the room continued to shake.

"It's not me! Sutekh has set the TARDIS in motion again, locked it into a forward course through time. He's trying to get rid of us!"

The Doctor hurried to the opposite side of the console. "He's put me into a time-loop," he murmured to himself as he worked. "Only fair, I suppose – I did it to him first. Hold on, I think I've got it…"

The room settled at last and the doors opened.

"There," said the Doctor. "That's it fixed. It only took me…" he glanced at a screen on the console, "oh, about a hundred years."

Sam looked up from tending Palmer's wounds, stunned. "Sutekh has been on that planet – with living hosts – for one hundred years?" she exclaimed. "Then we're too late!"

Jack turned to the opened doors. "Teal'c," he ordered, "you're with me. Sam, Daniel, I want you to stay here; look after Palmer and the Doctor. Let's see what we can do to fix this mess."

With that, Jack and Teal'c left the TARDIS. The Doctor watched them go with a profoundly worried expression.

"Let's hope there's anything left out there to fix," he muttered.


	7. Chapter Seven

O'Neill and Teal'c made their way cautiously back through the steep-sided valley. Everything looked pretty much the way it had earlier – or later on, depending on how you looked at it.

_I hate time travel_, decided Jack.

The Stargate was probably functional now, but only the Doctor knew at what point in history they were – dialling Earth was probably not a viable option.

"At least the universe is still here," said Jack.

"Indeed," replied Teal'c.

_See, that's what I like about Teal'c_, thought Jack. _Sam and Daniel are always rattling off some explanation to just about anything. Teal'c's happy to just say very little and get on with the job at hand._

_Perhaps when we get back home, I'll invite him fishing._

Jack looked around at the arid walls of the valley. "Although... the universe might be better off losing this dust-ball. This is only my second visit and already I'm bored out of my – woah."

Before them lay the small farming community they had passed through previously. Now, however, the village was alive with activity. Farmers dragged heavy implements through the dusty soil, scattering rough seeds that looked like tiny pieces of shale into the furrows. A few market stalls were arranged in the centre of the village, selling crudely woven cloths, small items of simple jewellery and ornately carved staffs. From each of the domed, mushroom-like buildings a thin plume of smoke rose and twisted into the sky. The air sang with the hub-bub of a hundred voices as the creatures haggled over prices, chatted to their neighbours or shouted to their children.

As Jack and Teal'c entered the village they saw that the creatures, while being vaguely humanoid, had heads like that of some strange beast; the face like a snub-nosed version of a horse, with two tall ears like a hare's and large, dull green eyes.

"How ya doing?" asked O'Neill, trying to act naturally. _Yeah_, he thought, _this is natural for me: I'm going to ask for directions from Mr Ed's ugly cousin_.

"Uh... we're looking for a Goa'uld..." he said.

One of the creatures approached O'Neill and began sniffing the air around him, curiously, his large, dark nostrils flaring with a snuffling sound.

"Goold?" it asked. Made bold by their comrade's bravery, more of the creatures began to gather around, sampling the air around Jack and Teal'c with their wide nostrils.

"Yeah," said O'Neill, beginning to feel uncomfortable. "Looks a bit like me, but with brighter eyes and a meaner temper."

The creature's eyes widened. "God!" it said.

Jack glanced at Teal'c and could sense that he was about to contradict the creature about the supposed godly status of the Goa'uld. Jack held up a hand to stop him. "Uh... yeah, that's the guy. Where would I find him?"

"Temple!" said the creature, growing excited. "Come! Come!" It tugged on Jack's sleeve.

"We can find it," said Jack, not wanting to get the creatures involved. "We know the way." But their self-appointed guide had grabbed one its companions – despite the friendly start to the conversation, it clearly still believed in safety in numbers – and the two of them were already hurrying off in the direction of the crashed ship.

"Aw, crap," said Jack. "Come on, Teal'c – before they get themselves killed."

o o o

Between them, Daniel and the Doctor had managed to get the unconcious Captain Palmer into a bed in one of the many rooms of the TARDIS. They had patched up his wounds and he seemed to be resting relatively peacefully.

"Just how big is this ship, Doctor?" asked Sam, looking around the room. Apart from the repeating roundels on the walls, it could almost have been a guest room in a normal Earth home.

"Inside or out," replied the Doctor.

Sam smiled. Getting a straight answer from the Doctor was like getting a laugh from Teal'c. Giving up, she walked with the Doctor and Daniel back down the corridor and into the the console room.

"Shall we get going?" asked the Doctor, rhetorically.

"Colonel O'Neill ordered us to stay here," said Sam.

"Ah," said the Doctor, his eyes twinkling with mischief, "but he also told you to keep an eye on Palmer and me, didn't he? Well, Palmer's not going anywhere and he'll be quite safe in the TARDIS."

"And you?" said Daniel, already knowing what the answer would be.

"Me?" said the Doctor, lifting his hat from the hatstand and placing it firmly on his head. "I thought I might take a nose around outside, see the sights, save the world. That sort of thing. So, if you want to keep an eye on me..."

He lifted the lever that opened the doors and left the TARDIS without looking back.

Sam threw a frustrated look at Daniel, who answered with a helpless shrug.

"We'd better get after him, Sam," he said.

"What about Palmer?"

"I agree with the Doctor," said Daniel. "Palmer should be fine here in the TARDIS. With that maze of corridors, if anyone did get in, chances are they'd never find him."

They hurried out after the Doctor, but with his long, purposeful strides, it was actually a while before Sam and Daniel managed to catch up with him. When they did, he was nearly at the outskirts of the village.

"Things could be worse," announced the Doctor, without turning around. "I don't know what's been happening in the last hundred years or so, but it doesn't look like Sutekh has been successful."

Daniel looked down at the thriving farming village. He pulled a small, square-sided telescope from a pocket in his shirt and peered through it. "He's here, though, somewhere," he said. "There are signs of Goa'uld occupation throughout the village; carved idols, banners bearing his symbol…"

"Yes," said the Doctor, "I noticed that too."

"They don't look like superpowered beings," said Daniel. "They look like… farmers."

"Perhaps it's the joining with a Goa'uld symbiote that gives them the powers," suggested Sam, "affects their biochemistry in some way."

"Perhaps," agreed the Doctor, sounding less than convinced. "I think however, that under the circumstances it might be prudent if we were to walk around this village, rather than through it."

"But we might be able to gather useful information from the creatures down there," protested Sam.

"Sutekh might very well _be _one of those creatures down there," replied the Doctor. "He's had plenty of time to take a new host."

Sam thought about this. "I could probably sense him, if I was close enough."

The Doctor turned, surprised. "Sense him?" he asked.

Sam shook her head slightly. "It's a long story. But if he was close to me, I think I'd know about it."

The Doctor tilted his head as if studying Sam in a new light. "How close?" he said at last. "As close as we are now?"

Sam swallowed. Something about the Doctor made her feel like she was back at school – only this time, she didn't have the answers. "Probably, yeah."

"Too risky," said the Doctor, dismissively. He immediately set off on a route that took him a clear distance from the village and its surrounding fields.

o o o

Jack and Teal'c had by now reached the edge of the wide crater and were lying in the dust, surveying the makeshift temple at the far end. Their two newfound guides stood close by, looking faintly puzzled. Jack gestured to them to conceal themselves as well, but this seemed only to confuse them further. In the end, Jack gave up and hoped that the sight of the two creatures would be commonplace enough not to draw any unwanted attention.

He pulled out a short telescope, identical to the one that Daniel had just used.

"Couple of those robot mummies standing guard at the door," he observed. "It's not going to be easy to get by them without making our presence known. There's no cover at all leading up there."

The creature that had spoken to them earlier turned to them. "No – guard not attack," it said. "You safe."

Jack was unconvinced. "Me safe, huh?" he said.

"Yes!" said the creature. "Guard not attack. Safe!"

Teal'c turned from his observation of the temple. "It appears that we have no alternative to a frontal assault. If this creature is correct, we may be able to pass the guards without incident."

Jack agreed, reluctantly. "Yeah, and if he's not, we're gonna have to shoot our way in anyway, so I guess it's worth a shot."

They stood and dusted themselves off.

"I can't believe Sutekh would let us walk right through the front door without a fight," said Jack.

"Nor can I," said Teal'c, readying his staff weapon, "so I will be ready to give him one."

"That's the spirit, big guy," said Jack with feigned high spirits. "Let's go knock on Death's door."

Jack clicked off the safety on his weapon. "And hope we've got time to run away before he answers."

They walked cautiously along the long furrowed channel towards the temple. Broad banners hung from tall posts at regular intervals along the path, bearing the sign of Sutekh. As they approached the door of the temple, it appeared that their guide was true to its word. The two robotic guards stood fixed in place, each holding a staff weapon in its hand.

They mounted the steps to the temple, their guides ahead of them, beckoning them in, excitedly.

"Oh, this is not good," said Jack.

"We do not appear to be in any immediate danger, O'Neill," said Teal'c.

"That's what's bothering me. It's all a little too easy."

The interior lighting was low, presumably a deliberate measure to enhance the effect of the flickering torches that jutted from the walls. The shadows playing across the painted murals gave an eerie sense of motion.

"Mood lighting is so 1970s," whispered Jack, but the truth was he was beginning to feel more ill at ease as they went on.

They stopped in the corridor outside the throne room. Jack dropped to a crouch, Teal'c covering him from the other side of the corridor and, slowly, he crept forward.

Their guide watched, his excitement of earlier turning to impatience at their increasing caution.

"Come," he urged.

Jack waved a hand to signal the creature to be quiet. "Keep it down!" he said quietly.

"You come temple," the creature stated. "You wish serve god."

"What!" exclaimed Jack in a harsh whisper. "We don't want to serve anybody!"

The creature looked astonished. "All who come temple come serve god. Is honour."

Jack groaned. "I knew it was too good to be true. We're gonna get ourselves killed," he said. "Teal'c, let's ditch high priest loudmouth here and fall back for now."

Turning back, however, they found the way blocked by the two guards from the doorway, their staff weapons now levelled and pointed directly at Jack and Teal'c.

"Aw, crap," said Jack, realising he wouldn't be able to get a shot off before the robots opened fire.

Their weapons were torn from their grasp and tossed aside. They were then marched back along the corridor. On the way, they passed the two creatures who had led them to the temple, who now regarded them with contempt. The two creatures huffed angrily through their large nostrils and turned away.

"Yeah, well, thanks for nothing, buddy," said Jack.

The robots pushed them through the doorway to the throne room with one thrust of their large heavy hands.

Before them sat a being who seemed to be of the same species as the creatures from the village. This one, however, had an air of malevolent intelligence and, tellingly, his large green eyes glowed brightly as if lit from within. Beside him stood a feeble, nightmarish creature, its face gaunt, eyes deep-set and bloodshot, its body hunched and twisted. With a jolt of horror, Jack realised that it was Scherer.

Jack struggled to regain his composure. "Sutekh, I presume," he said to the figure on the throne. "At least I hope so, otherwise he's gonna be pissed when he comes back and finds you sitting in his chair."

"You shall regret following me here," said Sutekh. In his new body, the Goa'uld's voice sounded less distorted than it had when in a human host. It had now taken on a cold, pitiless timbre, a little above a whisper.

"Yeah, it's not turning out to be the fun-packed day at the beach I was hoping for," said Jack. "Listen – I really hate all the gloating and the threats that I just _know_ you've got planned. If you're gonna kill us, can you make it quick?"

Sutekh rose from his throne and held his palm above Jack's head. Jack saw the hand device and closed his eyes reflexively. When the ribbon of golden flame shot from the device, Jack couldn't help crying out; it felt like the inside of his skull was being seared from within.

Sutekh shut off the device. "You will not die while you still serve a purpose," he said. "You will draw the Doctor to me."

"Oh, yeah?" said Jack, his head still ringing from the attack. "And how am I supposed to do that?"

Sutekh tilted his head slightly and raised the hand device again. "He will be drawn to your screams of pain," he said simply, sending another ribbon of light blasting into Jack's skull. Jack fell to his knees

"What do want with the Doctor?" asked Teal'c, trying to distract Sutekh from his torture of O'Neill. It worked – Sutekh stopped and turned to Teal'c.

"That is none of your concern, Jaffa," replied Sutekh, his voice still pitched at a low, menacing whisper. "Suffice it to say, he may be of use to me."

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Jack, ironically. "Didn't he kick your little snake butt, back in -" Jack looked at Teal'c. "What year did he say?"

"1911," supplied Teal'c.

"Yeah," said Jack, "that whole 'trapped in a time loop' thing?"

Sutekh looked to be considering this. "These events you speak of mean nothing to me. I was trapped inside a canopic jar since the Shol'vah Goa'uld imprisoned me until your soldier released me."

"Where is Lawson anyway?" said Jack. He already knew the answer, felt it in the twisting sensation of guilt in his gut, but he chose denial for a few more precious seconds.

"Dead," said Sutekh, without emotion. "I took a new body. Nothing of the host survives."

Jack shut his eyes and hung his head.

"Take them to the cells," ordered Sutekh. Jack was dragged to his feet and then he and Teal'c were pushed through a doorway at the rear of the throne room that led deeper into the gloomy depths of the temple.


	8. Chapter Eight

Carter looked up from her radio. "It's no good, the colonel's not responding."

The route they had taken had led them to the far edge of the crater in which the temple lay. From what they could see, the way was presently unguarded.

"We have to assume they've been taken by Sutekh," said the Doctor.

"Then we'll have to go rescue him," said Daniel.

"We'll need to find a way in," said Sam. "I don't see any guards, but who knows what we'll find inside. Besides, only a complete idiot would just walk through the front door."

"I might be able to help there," said the Doctor and strode off in the direction of the temple.

They hurried after him. Sam was aghast at the Doctor's lack of stealth. How he had survived as long as he had was a mystery. When they caught up, he already had a small panel off the side of the ship and was probing around inside with his sonic screwdriver.

"You know how to work these things?" asked Daniel.

"Oh, I find I can make most things work if I jiggle them around enough," said the Doctor, peering into the dark recess. He fumbled around in one the many voluminous pockets of his large overcoat, retrieved what he was looking for, and pressed it into the ship's workings. "Ah, there we go. That should work now."

"You always seem to have the right things in those pockets, Doctor," commented Sam. "How could you possibly know what you're going to need?"

"Ah, well," said the Doctor, with a smile, "the TARDIS has a telepathic circuit, you see. I just think of the thing that I need and it 'beams' the object into my pocket."

"Really?" replied Sam, impressed.

"No," replied the Doctor, "that would just be silly. Now, if you could both just move over there…"

Sam sighed, but she and Daniel did as they were instructed. The Doctor stood next to them and waited expectantly. When nothing happened for a few moments, Sam looked to the Doctor for an explanation, but all she got in return was a good-natured grin. The Doctor held up a hand with three fingers raised. He lowered one, then, a short while later, another.

Sam turned to Daniel. "Why am I beginning to feel like a magician's assistant?"

"Because he won't tell you how he does his tricks?"

As the Doctor dropped the final finger, wide bands of metal leapt up in a cloud of dust around them and they were engulfed in a bright white light.

The rings deposited them inside the ship before retracting seamlessly into the floor.

"Well, I was angling for 'because you're super glamorous'," said Sam, "but what the heck.

"Okay, Doctor," she continued. "How did you do that? Those rings came up _beside _the ship; how is that possible?"

"Come now, Captain Carter," said the Doctor. "You're an astrophysicist – you work it out."

Mentally, Sam kicked herself. She was going to have to get used to not getting a straight answer – or, in some cases, any answer – from the Doctor. Still, the scientist in her screamed to know how these things were done. Like, for instance, what the Doctor was up to now.

He stood in the centre of the corridor, with his legs a little apart and his arms spread out to the sides, like a surfer. He closed his eyes and rocked slightly from side to side.

"Um, what are you doing?" asked Daniel.

"Finding down," replied the Doctor without opening his eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"If Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c have been captured," said the Doctor. "They'll be in some sort of cell. In my experience, down is where one usually finds the dungeons. This way." So saying, he stalked off into the depths of the ship.

o o o

As it was, Jack and Teal'c were making some headway on an escape attempt themselves. The little cell in which they were held had only one door, guarded by a robot mummy with a staff weapon, but they found that, provided they kept away from the door, the robot ignored them completely.

Teal'c was using this opportunity to search the cell for anything that might aid their escape.

"Many of the panels in the walls are loose," he observed, tugging on one.

"Yeah," agreed Jack, giving Teal'c a hand tearing the panel away, "it must have broken up in the crash. Lucky for us."

The panel came loose, revealing a small compartment filled with about a dozen glowing crystals, each inserted in a little slot.

Jack groaned. This technical stuff was Sam's field of expertise. He found himself wishing she was there, which, he admitted to himself, was odd, considering 'there' was a Goa'uld prison cell. He pushed the thought from his mind. To Jack, it was like a loose tooth – probe it too much and it was going to hurt.

"You know what to do with this?" Jack asked Teal'c.

"I do not," Teal'c replied, searching the interior of the little compartment. "However, this may prove useful."

Teal'c reached under the crystals and grabbed a hold of a thick cable that ran through the compartment, disappearing deeper into the wall. He tugged on it firmly, dragging it from its housing and managed to extract a short length.

"Stand clear, O'Neill," warned Teal'c, and he jerked the length of wire sharply. It came free in a little shower of sparks.

Behind them, the cell door opened. The robot mummy began to turn, blocking the cell door.

"Did you know that was going to happen?" asked Jack in amazement.

"I did not," replied Teal'c, thrusting the spitting, torn end of the cable into the robot's face. The mummy jerked, its body dancing with electrical energy. Teal'c withdrew the cable and the mummy fell still, tiny wisps of acrid black smoke escaping from the seams of its bindings.

Teal'c wrenched the staff weapon from the mummy's grasp before pulling the robot to the floor, clearing a path through the door.

Jack paused in the door and looked down at the fallen robot, the severed cable still sparking at its side.

"I hope all Goa'uld prisons are this easy to escape from," he observed, before turning on his heel and following Teal'c.

o o o

Sam and Daniel, thanks largely to the Doctor's supremely confident sense of direction, were now hopelessly lost. This deep into the downed vessel, the décor was more in keeping with that of a Goa'uld ship, with its ornate gold panelling covering the angular walls, and it seemed as if they had been walking down the same corridor, over and over.

"Doctor?" said Daniel.

"Hmm?" The Doctor didn't turn around, still striding purposefully ahead.

"I don't think we're going in the right direction," said Daniel.

The Doctor slowed, but didn't say anything for a moment. "No," he said, slowly.

"We could double back," suggested Sam.

Suddenly, the Doctor raised a hand for silence, although neither Daniel nor Sam could see or hear any cause.

The Doctor edged forward and peered through a nearby doorway. He jerked back and pressed himself to the wall. Carefully, he turned his head to see into the room.

He drew back, his face white.

"Sutekh," he whispered, urgently. "Two guards. Ambush. Expecting us."

Sam noticed that the Doctor was shaking slightly. Whatever he had seen in that room had terrified him. She leaned forward to take a look.

She saw the throne room they had examined when they first arrived on the planet. In the centre of the room, standing with his back to her, was a creature like those they had glimpsed in the village, flanked by two of the robotic mummies. She could see no sign of Lawson, but off to one side stood a hunched, misshapen figure, twisted and broken.

With a tiny gasp, Sam recognised the figure as Scherer.

There was no way that anyone in the room could have heard Sam as she pulled away from the doorway in horror and disgust, and yet still Scherer turned, glaring with rimless, dead eyes. He lifted a ragged hand and moaned.

The Doctor stared, lost in mute terror for a moment, before regaining control.

"Get away!" he whispered sharply, shoving Sam and Daniel back down the corridor. "Go – or he'll kill us all!"

With that, the Doctor stepped into the throne room.

He lifted his hat and gave a convincingly cheery grin. "Good afternoon!" he said loudly. "Is the lady of the house at home?"

Sutekh whirled around with a hiss. The robot mummies turned and advanced on the Doctor, slowly lowering their staff weapons into an attack position.

"No need for that," said the Doctor, raising his hands. He lifted his voice a little, for the benefit of Sam and Daniel. "It's only me. If there was anyone with me, I'm sure they're_ long_ _gone_ by now."

Outside, Sam and Daniel showed no intention of simply running away.

"We're not leaving him in there," whispered Sam. "They'll kill him."

"He told us to go," replied Daniel.

Sam readied her weapon. "Then he doesn't know SG-1."

She stepped into the room and opened fire, bullets tearing through the cloth bindings of the closest robot. It staggered back, but did not fall.

Daniel used the diversion to run in and bundle the Doctor from the room.

"Sam doesn't like leaving people behind," he explained as they reached the relative safety of the doorway. "It's an SG-1 thing."

Behind them, Sam continued firing, backing away towards the door as she did so. The robots were slowed, but still they advanced.

One aimed its staff weapon at her head and she quickly shifted her aim, hitting its shoulder, sending it rocking back. The blast missed her head by a fraction, striking instead the controls for the doorway. The door began to slowly slide closed.

Watching this from the corridor, Daniel saw Sutekh raise his hand, palm towards Sam.

"Sam!" he yelled, ducking under the closing door. Even as he did so, he knew his rescue attempt was misjudged. He reached Sam's side just in time to share the impact of the hand device and they were both sent sprawling against the wall.

Outside, the Doctor thumped on the sealed door in frustration. Taking out his sonic screwdriver, he ran it over the control panel, but it was no use. Sam and Daniel were trapped in the throne room, at the mercy of Sutekh.


	9. Chapter Nine

Palmer stirred and groaned. His vision was blurred and the bright lights above made his eyes water.

He seemed to be lying on an ordinary household bed and struggled to remember why this should strike him as odd. Then he remembered: he was inside a spaceship – the Doctor's craft.

And somewhere, outside, an inhuman monster was killing his men. Palmer rolled onto his side, moaning slightly as the movement caused a renewed stab of pain through his skull. Every time Palmer tried to kill Sutekh, to save his men, there was the Doctor – getting in the way, preventing Palmer from protecting the soldiers under his command.

He made his way unsteadily to his feet and staggered towards the door. Sutekh would pay for his murderous crimes.

_Sutekh_, thought Palmer, _then the Doctor_.

o o o

The Doctor dashed down the corridor. If he could get back to the ring platform, he could enter the ship from the main door, which still led to the bridge.

Sutekh had regained his former host body; that was to be expected. What was odd, however, was that he did not seem to have any of his previous powers. There must be a further trigger than merely the symbiosis between the Goa'uld parasite and the alien creature.

_Well, _thought the Doctor, _I'm sure something will happen to shed light on things…_

"That's it!" he exclaimed, stopping dead. "Doctor, you're a genius!"

The Doctor looked suddenly bashful, glancing down and twiddling with his scarf. "Well… I don't like to boast."

Then he stopped and thought. "You do like to talk to yourself, however," he added.

With that, he set off again at a run. Turning the next corner, he found himself staring at a raised staff weapon.

With a flash of energy it snapped open, ready to fire.

o o o

Sam and Daniel also found themselves menaced by staff weapons, as they were forced to kneel before the throne of Sutekh.

"You will tell me what I want to know," demanded Sutekh, his menacing whisper of a voice rising to a choked snarl. He raised his hand.

Daniel winced instinctively; both he and Sam had been subjected to numerous blasts from the hand device during their short captivity.

"We… don't know why…" gasped Daniel.

Sam spoke up, as much to distract Sutekh from hurting Daniel further as anything else. "We thought that your powers were inherent in the alien body you took."

"You were wrong," growled Sutekh. "If you can not tell me that which I need to know, you are of no further use to me. Guards – destroy them."

"Sam is a very competent scientist," said Daniel, quickly. He looked at Sam.

"Oh, yes," said Sam, "and Daniel has already learned a great deal about the history of this planet."

"I'm sure we'd… work something out…?" said Daniel, not liking his chances.

Sutekh glared down at them, his large green eyes glowing.

"Very well," he said at last.

Daniel let out a breath he hadn't been aware that he was holding. Slowly, with a wary glance at the robot guards, Daniel got to his feet and moved to the carvings on the wall. Sam moved to join him.

"This is the same pictographic story as in the entranceway," said Daniel. "See? There's the depiction of the flash of light from the sky. It's interesting – many cultures on Earth have similar means of depicting their own history. For instance, writings unearthed in Egypt have - "

"You are stalling!" hissed Sutekh.

"No I'm not!" said Daniel, quickly.

"Anger me again and the female will suffer."

"Hold on," said Sam. "The female? I'm a US Air Force Captain, but oh no, every bad guy we meet thinks I'm the one to threaten because I'm a woman."

"Now is _really _not the time, Sam," said Daniel.

"Silence!" said Sutekh, returning to his throne. "You have one hour. Find the reason why I have not achieved my full powers or you will both die slow and painful deaths. After which, you shall serve me as this one does." Sutekh laid a hand on the head of the creature that had once been Scherer.

Sam and Daniel looked back at the wall carvings, feeling sick to their cores.

"You suck at stalling," muttered Sam, trying to take her mind off Scherer's fate.

"Me?" replied Daniel. "You nearly got us killed with feminism. That would be a weird way to die."

"Well, he ticked me off."

"Wait a minute."

"Okay, okay. I wasn't going to start another rant."

"No, I mean these carvings. Have you noticed – they're just like the ones in the entryway."

"Yes, you said."

"No, I mean _just_ like them," said Daniel, "right down to Sutekh leaving through the Stargate."

"But Sutekh… Of course! I can't believe I've been so stupid. Sutekh originally crashed on this planet. For him to arrive in the Doctor's ship and set up his temple here, he had to have got here after his own original time."

"Then that streak of light - "

"Isn't Sutekh's ship arriving," finished Sam.

"Then we need to find out what it was," said Daniel. "It may be the key to how Sutekh got his powers – and how we can stop it happening again."

o o o

The Doctor skidded to a halt and threw his arms up in surrender. The staff weapon snapped shut.

"Doctor!" said Jack.

"O'Neill," said the Doctor. "Teal'c. I'm so glad it's you."

"Where's Daniel and Carter?"

"This way," replied the Doctor. "They've been taken prisoner by Sutekh. I have a plan and I can get us to them, but we have to hurry."

Jack nodded and they set off down the corridor in the direction that the Doctor had been going, until they reached the ring room. Finding it deserted, the Doctor got to work on the control panel.

"Right, let's go," he said, stepping into the radius of the rings.

"Go where?" asked Jack. "We're in a crashed ship."

"There's no time. Trust me," said the Doctor.

Jack and Teal'c joined him on the ring platform and the Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver. The rings jumped up from hidden recesses in the floor and the three were teleported away.

As soon as the rings had settled, the Doctor sprinted towards the doorway of the ship.

"How?" began Teal'c, looking around. "Rings can't - "

"Come on," shouted Jack, rushing after the Doctor.

They rounded the side of the ship to find a robot mummy aiming its staff weapon at the Doctor's head.

"Wait!" shouted the Doctor, gesturing to the others to lower their weapons before turning back to the guard. "Take me to Sutekh. I have information that can help him."

"That's your plan?" blurted Jack as his weapon was taken from him by the mummy.

"I told you," said the Doctor, "you have to trust me."

The three were herded inside the ship by the burly robot.

After a moment, the dishevelled figure of Captain Palmer stumbled around the side of the ship, hugging his sidearm to his chest, his eyes wild.

"Information to Sutekh," he mumbled. "Knew it… Doctor… Sutekh…"

Still muttering darkly, his voice trailing into the nonsense syllables of madness, Palmer slipped through the doorway of the ship.


	10. Chapter Ten

"I think I have it," said Sam in a hushed voice to Daniel. "The light in the sky – we've seen it before, when we first got here, the ribbon of matter that the Doctor pointed out."

Sutekh rose from his throne. "What is this 'ribbon of matter'?" he demanded.

"It figures he'd have good hearing with ears like those," said Daniel.

Sam turned, her mind racing. "I'm not sure. I could be wrong. I don't even really know what it is."

"It's called the Maktor cloud," said the Doctor, striding into the room as if he wasn't a prisoner at the wrong end of a staff weapon, "and the flash of light was caused by a small portion of it igniting in the planet's atmosphere. An event that will occur again this very night, if I'm not mistaken."

Behind him, Jack and Teal'c entered, visibly relieved to see Daniel and Sam still alive.

Sutekh rounded on him, his green eyes flashing. "And this will give me my powers?"

"On the contrary," said the Doctor. "The ignition of the matter in the cloud creates a potent nerve gas with some rather interesting properties. Harmless to humans, it sends the natives of this world into paroxysms of religious ecstasy. It's why they always hold their holiest ceremonies around the time of the conjunction of this planet with the cloud. Oh, it's also highly poisonous to Goa'uld symbiotes. That's why I allowed myself to be captured, you see – so I could warn you, get you off the planet. You know how I hate to see another creature suffer. So, if you'd just come along, like a good Osirian…"

"You lie!" said Sutekh, raising his hand weapon.

Before Sutekh could activate the device, Palmer stepped through the door, and began firing. Shot after shot ripped into Sutekh's torso, sending him staggering back against his throne.

Palmer turned to aim at the Doctor, but at that moment he caught sight of Scherer, whose body was slumped against the side of Sutekh's throne. With an inhuman cry of anguish, he dropped his gun, ran across the room and threw his arms around the man's corpse.

"My god," said Jack, catching his first sight of Scherer. "What happened to him?"

"Sutekh has the power to animate dead flesh," said the Doctor, grimly, "similar to the technology of the sarcophagus. When Sutekh was killed by Palmer the power that animated Scherer was cut, but I'm afraid your comrade had already been dead for a long time."

Similarly, the guards in the room, with no master to protect and no orders to follow, had also fallen still.

"Let's go home," said Jack, his voice quiet. "Gather up your stuff. The least we can do is see that Scherer and Lawson get a proper burial."

"Sir," said Sam, "Lawson's gone. Sutekh, he…"

"Memorial then," snapped Jack, sickened by everything that had happened. "Let's just get out of here."

Suddenly, the room was filled with a dull, red glow.

"The Maktor event," explained the Doctor. "Quite harmless now. Under different circumstances I'd recommend it as one of the most beautiful sights in the universe."

"Beautiful?" With a low moan, Palmer rose to his feet and staggered towards the Doctor, his face contorted with rage.

Jack turned. "Palmer, stand down – that's an order. Just let it… look out!"

Stirring in the throne, his green eyes bright against the glittering red of the Maktor event, Sutekh rose to his feet. He stretched out a hand towards Palmer who stopped as if grabbed from behind.

Palmer began to shake, his feet rising from the floor.

"Jack," was all Palmer managed to say, before his body was incinerated from within, bursting into ash in a second leaving Sutekh standing in a cloud of cinders.

"No!" cried Jack.

"Run," yelled the Doctor. "All of you, get out now!"

The robot guards remained still, Sutekh having no need of them now, so SG-1 managed to make it through the door and down the corridor, the Doctor close behind. Unhurried, revelling in his power, Sutekh strode after them.

Jack and his team ran through the ship, eventually finding the main door.

"Come on!" shouted Jack as they made it outside. Outdoors, the Maktor event looked like red crystal rain against the dark night sky.

"Where's the Doctor?" said Sam, looking back inside the doorway.

"We can't go back in there," said Jack. "We'd be toast. Take up positions around the doorway. All we can do is to try to take Sutekh by surprise."

"O'Neill," said Teal'c, pointing to the edge of the crater where flashes of bright orange light could be seen against the red sky, "the village."

"This is a religious event for the creatures on this planet," said Daniel. "They could be celebrating. Some sort of firework, perhaps?"

"That is staff weapon fire," said Teal'c.

"Sutekh's robots?" asked Sam.

"Too many of them," replied Jack. "Alright, we stick to the plan. Get in position around the door, but keep an eye on that ridge. We do not want to be outflanked here."

o o o

The Doctor stood in a corridor of the Goa'uld ship, his eyes blank and staring.

"How quickly the mind of a Time Lord falls to my power," whispered Sutekh, from behind the Doctor, "the vaunted Gallifreyan intellect overcome."

"Actually," said the Doctor, blinking, "I've become quite adept at resisting mind control since our last meeting. I was just trying to give the others time to escape."

Sutekh hissed, his nostrils flaring. With a flick of his hand, he sent the Doctor sprawling against the wall. "Fool! You only seal your own doom."

"That's where you're wrong," said the Doctor, brightly, picking himself up and dusting himself off. "Before you kill me, you really should take a look outside. You see, I've just remembered what day it is."

"What is this trickery?" snorted Sutekh, walking towards the exit from the ship. "You cannot hope to fool me. With my newfound power I am all but invincible."

"Jolly good," said the Doctor, following him. "Shall we?"

o o o

Jack looked in the direction of the village, and saw that the flashes of weapons fire had died away.

"God, it must have been a slaughter," said Daniel. "It's happening again."

"Actually, it's happening for the first time," said Sam. "What we saw was the aftermath, long after the event."

"Have I mentioned how much I hate time travel?" asked Jack.

"O'Neill!" said Teal'c, readying his staff weapon and gesturing towards the ridge.

"Aw, crap," said Jack, as the unmistakable figure of a Jaffa soldier came into sight.

"Oh, _crap!_" he said again. Coming up behind the Jaffa was the largest Goa'uld army Jack had ever seen. They filled the edge of the mile-wide crater and spilled down towards them.

"Fall back!" yelled Jack. "Behind the ship!"

They scurried for cover, staying low, fearing that at any moment the army would unleash a volley of staff weapon fire and knowing that if it did there was nothing they could do to survive.

o o o

Even before Sutekh had reached the door, he could hear the thunder of booted feet running towards the ship. He stepped outside and was immediately hit by several staff blasts. Undaunted, he raised a hand and returned fire with solid red bolts of light that flew from his fingers. Stepping back, he took cover in the doorway as he cut down another half a dozen Jaffa with a shot from his hand.

"Sorry Sutekh old chap," said the Doctor. He ran forward and barged Sutekh through the door, sending them both tumbling into the dust. The Doctor quickly scrambled to his feet and ran to the side of the ship, staff blasts blowing craters in the dirt around him.

His hopes that the Jaffa army would only be interested in Sutekh were dashed when he glanced over his shoulder and saw three Jaffa chasing him. Holding onto his hat, he picked up the pace and rounded the corner of the ship.

Whirling around, he saw the Jaffa raising their staff weapons to fire.

"Goodbye," said the Doctor, and jammed his sonic screwdriver into the control panel for the ring transporter. The rings sprung up and teleported the Jaffa away.

"That should hold you three for a while," he said.

"Doctor!"

Jack stepped out from behind the ship and gestured for the others to follow suit.

"Colonel O'Neill," beamed the Doctor. "Shall we head for home?"

"Uh, Doctor?" said Jack. "What about Sutekh? What about the honking great army of Jaffa and Goa'uld?"

"Oh, they'll sort each other out," replied the Doctor. "They did last time. And the time before that. And the time before that…"

o o o

Sutekh stood by the doorway of his temple, firing blast after blast into the massive army. As he did so, their staff weapons tore into him, his body charring, his robes hanging in tatters from his body.

Around him stood Jaffa bearing the emblems of all the System Lords; of Baal, of Osiris, of Lord Yu. The soldiers of Ra fought alongside those of Apophis. Hundreds of minor Goa'uld also lent what power they had to the effort.

And the battle was starting to go their way. Sutekh felt his power ebb away, his strength fading. He fell to one knee and, as staff weapon fire continued to pound into him, he sank to the dusty ground. A blast to the shoulder spun him onto his back and he lay staring into the crimson rain of the Maktor event, the source of the power that had now left him.

A throng of Jaffa gathered around him, their weapons pointed down at him. Through this crowd, Sutekh saw the System Lord Baal looming over him, a cruel smile twisting his face. On his left hand was a jagged metal gauntlet whose fingers ended in curved blades which glinted red in the light from the sky.

"Lord Sutekh," said Baal, "It is the decision of the System Lords that you should be parted from your host and held in static confinement for eternity, your host body destroyed and the creatures of your world put to death. Power such as yours would lay waste to all creation. The balance of the galaxy must be maintained."

He flexed the fingers of his gauntlet. "Turn him over," he said.

The last thing Sutekh felt, before he was torn from his host body, was five bladed fingers, sinking into the back of his neck.

Baal lifted the squirming, gasping symbiote and placed it in a waiting canopic jar, which was lifted by a burly Jaffa soldier.

The deed done, the members of the unusual Goa'uld alliance turned and made their way back to the Stargate, each of them aware that the various truces would only hold for as long as it took to secure Sutekh in his prison.

o o o

"That makes no sense," said Sam.

"Of course it does," replied the Doctor. "The Sutekh whom the Goa'uld have just imprisoned was the one who escaped. That left the Sutekh who left through the Stargate, as we saw in the temple carvings, for me to deal with in 1911, when I set a trap that locked him into a time loop."

"And the time loop…"

"We're in it. Escape and capture, over and over, for eternity."

"See? That makes no sense!"

"What a mess," said Jack, looking out over the battlefield. Jaffa lay dead in their hundreds, in a rough circle around the crumpled, smoking body of what was once Sutekh. "Let's get Scherer and get back home."

o o o

The central column of the TARDIS console fell still as the time machine arrived at its proper time and place. The Doctor operated a control and the doors opened, revealing the briefing room of Stargate Command.

Teal'c lifted the body of Scherer, which they had wrapped in a makeshift shroud made from an old bed sheet found somewhere in the depths of the TARDIS, and stepped through the doors.

"Doctor?" said Jack, nodding towards the door.

"Well, I don't usually stay around at this point," said the Doctor, "but I owe General Hammond that much at least."

"Thank you, Doctor."

o o o

The Doctor knocked on the door of General Hammond's office.

"Come in," said Hammond, quietly.

"General," began the Doctor, closing the door behind him and taking off his hat, "no apology I could make could ever make up for the loss of your men, but for what it's worth, I am truly, truly sorry."

"I know. And you know that all of my men are prepared for the worst every time they step through that gate. What's done is done."

The Doctor sat down on the opposite side of Hammond's desk and lapsed into a pensive silence.

The two men sat for a minute in quiet contemplation until Hammond straightened up and cleared his throat. "So, where next for you?" he asked.

"Oh, you know, see where the TARDIS takes me," replied the Doctor, standing up and placing his hat back on his head.

Hammond smiled and stood up, extending his hand, which the Doctor shook, warmly.

"Take care out there, Doctor," said Hammond.

"And you, General," replied the Doctor, with a wide grin. "And you."


End file.
